Global Warming due to the effect of greenhouse gases such as those released by thermal power plants is increasingly becoming a matter of serious concern for environmentalists.
Another area of serious concern to environmentalists is the destruction of forests and green cover on our planet. Vast tracts of our planet are covered with desert like conditions and these tracts are increasing. A novel solution exists that can solve both these problems simultaneously. Just as animals and humans breathe oxygen releasing carbon dioxide as waste (A green house gas), trees and plants breathe in carbon dioxide releasing oxygen. Thermal power plants too release copious amounts of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. IF a regulation existed (Lets call it the GREEN STEAM PROTOCOL or GSP for short) that required every operating power plant to green sufficient areas of our planet to create a green cover sufficient to absorb the carbon dioxide released by them during their lifetime the problem can be solved. Such a protocol will undoubtedly increase the cost of thermal power but the benefits to the society at large would be immense. Scientists can easily calculate the amount of green cover required for various thermal plants based on their electricity output and thermal efficiency. A GSP needs to be imposed on fossil fuel based thermal plants just as a GST is imposed on various other goods. If the amount of greening required is somewhat in excess of the actual requirement, Thermal Power Plants will become the agents of reducing global warming rather than increasing it.
The somewhat increased cost of power due to GSP will also encourage alternative power technologies such as wind and solar power to become more competitive which they are not at presentas well as encourage power plants to operate at higher supercritical pressures so as to improve their thermal efficiencies. AN increase in thermal efficiency would become more economically attractive since power cost reduction will then be due to both a reduced GSP as well as due to increased thermal efficiency.
It must be remembered that at one time the fossil fuels were trees and forests on our planet. Digging these out from the earth and producing electricity through their use combined with the Green Steam Power Protocol only helps to restore our planet to its Pristine Glory.
If you are interested in such a protocol becoming law in most countries please give your views on the matter as a comment, and help lobby for it with the appropriate forums seized with the issue. At the heart of this campaign is the visualization of a new partnership between Environmental and Engineering groups. Partnerships based on mutual help accomplish far more than confrontation.
UPDATE: APRIL 2014: This author is extremely apologetic that he got influenced by the mainstream thinking on the subject to conclude that fossil fuels cause global warming without applying scientific thinking to the subject. He has now revised his stance and accordingly posted revised views in recent posts in an informal manner as is appropropriate to the general reader of the blog. A somewhat more formal review is posted elsewhere - http://ashokmalhotra.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/how-to-control-global-warming-and-climate-extremes/
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